There's a moment on "Vanishing", a highlight of the new album by Circuit des Yeux, where the strings seem to be building up to a Motown-worthy hook. It's like a Supremes gem recast by Kronos Quartet, even as Haley Fohr wails over the chords. The whole thing signals some kind of release, as does most of -io, the new long-player on Matador Records.
All throughout -io we hear the sound of collapse. Things seem to be coming apart, walls coming down and all that, as Fohr takes her most personal fears and writes them in large letters against big walls of sound. "Dogma", a percolating "single" here, surges forward with purpose, recalling portions of that one Diamanda Galas album with John Paul Jones. This one and all the rest is all far from accessible, but here, as on the previously-mentioned "Vanishing", and it feels as if Fohr is making the kind of big music very few are capable of making these days.
What's apparent here is that Haley Fohr is attempting to bridge a kind of minimalism, that of Glass and Adams, for example, with an ornate, DIY chamber pop. At times, this seems mannered, but it always has force and potency. The disturbing "Sculpting the Exodus" even works in what sounds like a John Carpenter keyboard figure, bringing the sense of doom that's hovering all over -io here a hint of Halloween-worthy dread. -io demands your attention, and while not all of this is abrasive or anything, this is serious music, delivered with emotive fire, and a real sense of how a musician can still make broad, large gestures despite limitations in orchestration, and in a year of a plague no less.
-io is out now via Matador.
More details on Circuit des Yeux via the official website.
[Photo: Matador Records]